Police: Dad Poses As Teen Daughter, Catches Alleged Child Predator

FRESNO, Calif. (CBS Local) – A California father is warning parents about an alleged child predator after he caught the man trying to meet his teenage daughter in a park.

In March of 2017, Todd Thomas discovered that his 14-year-old child was secretly sexting with a man identified as 42-year-old Hugo Rabson. Thomas said that he found his daughter asleep with a cellphone in her hands, but he hadn’t allowed her to own one. Police say Rabson gave the teenager the cell after she reportedly went on the app Whisper and asked strangers for a phone.

“I was shocked at what I found,” Thomas said, via WREG. “The messages this man had sent to my daughter are worse than anything I’d say to a one-night stand.”

The father decided to confront Rabson and posed as his daughter to arrange a meeting in a public park with the suspected predator. When Thomas and a friend arrived at the Clovis, California park, they reportedly found Rabson grooming himself for the supposed meeting.

“He tried to leave. I football blocked him. I told him he couldn’t go anywhere and this was a citizen’s arrest,” Thomas said, via KEPR. Police were called to the park and took the suspect’s phone. After an investigation into his texts and email records, Rabson was arrested in January and charged with arranging a meeting with a minor for lewd or lascivious behavior.

The father claims other alleged victims of Rabson have contacted him since his friend posted the video of their citizen’s arrest. “This demon has many victims. Many victims,” said Thomas. “They don’t want their names out there. They’re asking me to fight this for them.”